Bouquet of Flowers
by SylvanDreamer
Summary: Oneshot. Graveyards are lonely places. But it is only there that Sakura finds solace.


**Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto.**

**Warning**: Spoilers for chapter 398 and above. You might not understand some things unless you've read the latest chapters in the manga. In fact, you might not understand a lot of things unless you've read/watched Shippuuden.

Very mild SasuNaru. You could almost miss it. Could be taken as friendship too.

**A Bouquet of Flowers**

It is that time of the year again.

During the first blush of springtime, when the air is still cool and there is a faint aftertaste of winter, Sakura carries a bouquet of carefully picked flowers and makes her way to the cemetery of Konoha. She knows the road well and when she gets there, she can pick out the individual tombstones she will visit one by one.

Just like last year. And the year before that.

The soil is wet, earthy. And the first two tombstones she visits are side by side. She squats uncomfortably in front of them and from the bunch of flowers she is carrying, she takes out two pink carnations, placing one in front of each tombstone.

Pink carnations. _Gratitude_.

"Hello, mother, father," she greets quietly. They are the only graves that she talks to. She has all morning and her pace is unhurried as she tells her parents about how the year has been in Konoha this time. They had an unseasonably cold winter and everyone is glad it is finally spring. The village is busy. Unconsciously, one hand reaches out and strokes the carnations' soft petals.

Yes. Gratitude. She has so much to be thankful to her parents for. When she had first announced her stubborn decision to enter the Ninja Academy, they had tried to dissuade her. Nobody in their family had ever been a shinobi before. She had no clan to fall back on, no secret techniques that they could pass down to her. She'd never even been that good in physical activities. All she had going for her were her smarts.

But Sakura stuck tenaciously to her decision and her parents had had no choice but to support her. And they never complained. Not when she practiced throwing shuriken instead of helping mother with the laundry. Not when she pored over scrolls instead of helping father do the dishes. When she'd cut her hair in that wild moment of rebellion in the Forest of Death, her mother had only sighed, took a pair of scissors, and had helped her even out her hair.

They had nursed every bruise, every cut. They had comforted her with every tear. And when Akatsuki had come rampaging into Konoha to claim the nine-tailed demon fox, her parents had been among the first people to be killed.

She had never gotten to say goodbye.

After Sakura had finished conversing with them, she had sat there for a few more moments, rocking back and forth. Then she lifted herself up and walked over to another portion of the cemetery. It was the ground where shinobi were buried.

The next tombstone she walked to was that of her oldest and best friend. Ino.

On Ino's tomb, Sakura lay an iris. _Inspiration_.

Ino, who had nearly died trying to save Sakura's parents in the battle with Akatsuki. And later on, as she lay weak and battered at the hospital with Sakura keeping vigil beside her bed, her first words to Sakura had been, "I'm sorry."

They had broken down and cried together. It was the first and last time Sakura had cried after the Akatsuki attack. Only Ino had seen her at her weakest and just like when they had been children, Ino had given her strength.

Ino had been one of the few to have survived the battle with Akatsuki. Their friendship had only deepened more after that. Sakura had been the maid of honor at Ino's wedding and godmother to her first child. When Ino had gotten sick, Sakura had visited the hospital everyday, helpless as she watched her best friend wither away before her. The night before Ino died, Sakura had begged her not to go, not to leave Sakura alone.

Ino had only smiled and placed something on Sakura's palm. It was the ribbon Ino had given her when they were children. The same one that Sakura had returned to Ino during the chuunin exams. As Sakura accepted it, she felt tears well in her eyes.

"You're strong enough to stand on your own now, forehead girl," Ino had said weakly, affectionately. "You're even stronger than I am."

Ino's last words had helped during the hellish days just after her best friend's death.

Sakura slowly walked away from Ino's tomb. A little ways behind it was a big, ostentatious tombstone. Sakura smiled slightly as she placed a hydrangea on Jiraiya-sama's showy gravestone. Hydrangea. _Perseverance_.

Jiraiya-sama, the author of the perverted books Kakashi-sensei loved so much. Teacher to the Fourth Hokage and to Naruto. In more ways than one, he had been Naruto's father figure.

Sakura had hated it when he'd taken Naruto to train. Sasuke had already left at that time, she didn't need the perverted old hermit to take away the only other remaining member of Team Seven. But Jiraiya-sama had also returned Naruto. And for that, Sakura was grateful.

She had never known the man personally. But his death at the hands of Akatsuki's Pain reverberated in waves from the people closest to her. Tsunade-sensei had gotten drunk every night after that, and she had often told Sakura stories about Jiraiya's life. About how he never gave up on something, including Tsunade-sensei. Even at the end of his life, he had managed to deliver to them important information regarding Akatsuki.

It was no wonder why Naruto, Tsunade-sensei, even Kakashi-sensei, revered him.

The next tombstone was at a quiet corner of the cemetery. It said simply, Rock Lee. She took out a wisteria – _steadfastness_ – and placed it in front of Lee's name.

Here was another tale of someone who refused to give up. Even though he could not use chakra to create genjutsu and ninjutsu – even though all he had going for him was taijutsu, Rock Lee never let go of his dream to be a shinobi.

She could still remember the blinding white smile, the thick eyebrows and the horrifying green spandex. She could still remember how he would wait for her training to be over and then ask her for a date every _night, _week after week, year after year. And he didn't stop. No matter how many, "No, Lee-kun"s she threw his way.

She last saw him grinning at her during the battle with Akatsuki. Just before he threw his body in front of her, to shield her from Suigetsu's blow. His blood had sprayed all over her clothes and he never opened his eyes again, no matter how many times she screamed at him to get up. He had died saving her life, grinning happily as if she had finally accepted his offer to go on a date with him.

With Sai's help, Sakura had killed Suigetsu after that.

She placed a palm on Lee's gravestone one last time before moving to one near the center of the cemetery, in the plot where the Hokages were buried. She lay a white chrysanthemum on Tsunade-sensei's tomb. It stood for _truth_.

Tsunade-sensei, who she owed so much. Tsunade-sensei had given her strength, had taught her medic ninjutsu and had helped her see what it truly meant to be a shinobi. Tsunade-sensei who had uncovered the truth behind Uchiha Itachi's massacre of the Uchiha clan, of the Sandaime Hokage's horrible order, of the story behind the Shodaime and the tailed beasts. Tsunade-sensei who had wept at the horrible history of the village she loved.

Tsunade-sensei had also survived the battle with Akatsuki, and had the scars to prove it. The Godaime Hokage had led Konoha as it struggled to stand again from the ruins of that attack, and had helped rebuild Konoha to its former glory.

Tsunade-sensei, who had died with a bottle of sake and Jiraiya-sama's last book beside her, Naruto's picture clasped in her hands, and a final, peaceful smile on her lips.

Through all the years that Sakura had known her, that had been the only time she had seen Tsunade-sensei without her genjutsu.

Sakura walked over to the more recent tombstones and knelt in front of Kakashi-sensei's, placing a gladiolus before it. _Strength of character_.

Her perverted-book-loving jounin sensei, who had pushed her out of the innocence of childhood and into the grim reality of the shinobi world. Kakashi-sensei, who's character had been defined by loved ones who were all dead. Sakura understood perfectly now how Kakashi-sensei must have felt.

It had been Kakashi-sensei who had explained it to her on _that_ fateful night, just before Akatsuki arrived at Konoha. Sakura remembered a candle-lit room where Tsunade-sensei was crying, Naruto was quiet and Sai was sitting in the corner, drawing book in hand, pen slashing viciously across the paper. She remembered thinking it was strange – Sai usually drew with all the delicacy of a surgeon. It was Kakashi-sensei who had spoken.

"Naruto has struck a deal with the Kyuubi. We will set the nine-tailed fox free and in exchange, he will help us fight against Akatsuki," Kakashi-sensei's voice had been wooden.

"What?" Sakura had cried out. "How on earth will we set the Kyuubi free? And what makes you so sure it won't attack _us_ once it is free?"

Kakashi-sensei had sighed tiredly. "You know the truth Sakura. The only reason the Kyuubi attacked us in the first place was because it had been imprisoned by the Shodaime Hokage. It has promised to aid us if we grant it freedom – help us this once, and leave, never to bother Konoha again unless we provoke it to."

"But... but how will we set the fox free?"

"The same technique that Akatsuki uses, only modified. The Yondaime Hokage has extensive notes on it, and Jiraiya-sama has apparently worked on it as well. Only..."

"Only what?" Sakura had asked, her voice quavering. There was something about Tsunade-sensei's tears, Sai's emotional behavior, Naruto's _silence_, that didn't seem right.

"When you extract the bijuu, the jinchuuriki will die. Like the incident with Gaara," she could now pick out the inevitability, the suffocating grief, in Kakashi-sensei's voice.

She remembers screaming at Naruto. _How dare he trust that fox!_ But Naruto has always been trusting. She remembers screaming at Kakashi-sensei. _How could he agree with this?_ But a fighting chance is better than no chance at all.

She remembers tears, helplessness. She remembers little of the actual extraction of the Nine Tails. She remembers being the one to prepare Naruto's body for burial. She remembers Chiyo-obaasama, and thinking that if she had known the same technique the old woman did, _she_ would have gladly given her life in exchange for Naruto's.

She remembers the battle, where the Nine Tails _had _kept it's word and fought with them against the Akatsuki. She remembers it growling, "Thank that brat", when the enemy had been defeated, before it disappeared forever. She remembers laughing, laughing hard, because Naruto had been _right_. Because he had not died in vain.

And she stops remembering.

Kakashi-sensei's tombstone has always been the hardest to visit. She owns his collection of Icha Icha now. Though Sakura never reads it, she likes it nearby all the same.

Slowly, she drops the rest of her flowers on the remaining tombstones. Hyacinth, on Iruka-sensei's. _Sincerity_. Daffodil on Shikamaru's. _Chivalry_. Hibiscus on Hinata's. _Delicate beauty_. Delphinium on Kiba's. _Boldness_. Magnolia on Neji's. _Dignity_.

Her hands are empty and there are no more flowers when she finally approaches the last two tombstones. They are shaded by a weeping willow tree and she doesn't need to bring flowers here. Years ago, she planted roses on these tombstones and every time she visits, they are always in full bloom.

Although the kanji characters are well-worn, she knows that the name on the left tombstone is Uchiha Sasuke's.

Sasuke – her first ever love – who she killed with her own two hands using the Rasen Shuriken, the technique begun by the Fourth Hokage, completed by Naruto and refined by Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke, who had dismissed her love, betrayed his village and tried to kill his best friend. Stupid, _stupid_ Sasuke.

Some hadn't wanted him buried here. Some had argued that his tomb should have been in the Uchiha's private cemetery. But Sakura had fought for his tomb to be placed beside Naruto's. Naruto would have wanted that, she knew. And some deeper part of her – the part that had known the Sasuke before the cursed seal, before Team Hebi, before Akatsuki – thought that Sasuke would have wanted it like this as well.

Because even when they were alive, there was no distinction really between Naruto and Sasuke. You did not know where Naruto ended and Sasuke began. Their destinies had _always_ been inexplicably intertwined, like the roses Sakura had planted.

It had been red roses for Naruto, and white for Sasuke. But as they had grown, the bushes had intertwined themselves, growing around each other, thornily clasping to the other so that when the flowers bloomed, it wasn't red on one side and white on the other – it was red and white roses together, everywhere.

Red and white. _Unity. _

Naruto and Sasuke, who had defined her life but more importantly who had defined each other. She remembers that whenever they sparred, she could only look on, jaw hanging open, at the fluidity, power, understanding that they came at each other with. She had realized once that the two belonged together. And they were together now.

Naruto and Sasuke – a big portion of the history of Konoha revolved around them. One as its savior, the other as its betrayer.

Her fingers run across the silky softness of the rose petals. She never picks them off the rosebushes. They belong to her two teammates.

Sakura has wondered once, just once, what it would have been like had she been part of some other genin team. Some _normal _genin team. (Because Team Seven had probably been the most fucked-up team to exist in Konoha's history). Another team whose members did not try to kill each other.

She feels a shinobi's step behind her. "Hokage-sama?"

The emotionless voice belongs to Sai, her Anbu commander. Sakura stands up and brushes the dirt from her robes. This is the only luxury she allows herself. Being Hokage is demanding work. Her time is precious and her schedule is always full.

She casts one last lingering glance at Naruto's tombstone. Naruto – the reason why she took the mantle of Hokage in the first place. Naruto – whose dream to be Hokage was never fulfilled, so Sakura took it and turned it into _her_ dream instead. So she could protect the people of Konoha – Naruto's precious people – in his stead.

Sometimes she daydreams. If it had been up to her, she would have become a medic nin. Gotten married, had children, seen them off to the Ninja Academy. But there is no place in reality for a little girl's lost dreams.

-

On her way back to the Hokage Tower, Sakura thinks of the paperwork waiting for her and she sighs. She is beginning to feel her age. Her bones ache when she wakes up in the cold mornings. Her vision is blurry when she tires her eyes too much. Soon, very soon, it will be time to announce her successor. The Shichidaime – the Seventh Hokage of Konoha.

Perhaps Hyuuga Hitori, Neji's grandson? Perhaps.

Her mind is full of memories today as she walks through her village. There is the Ninja Academy. There is the house she grew up in with her parents. There is Ino's flower shop, Naruto's favorite ramen stand, the road leading to the Uchiha compound. She sees her companions all around her, as they were so many years ago.

Kiba talking to a blushing Hinata. Shikamaru and Asuma in a game of shougi. Kakashi-sensei reading his perverted book and giggling. Tsunade-sensei and Jiraiya-sama drinking sake. Chouji eating, Ino fixing her hair, Shino and Tenten sparring. There is Gai-sensei and Lee, running laps around Konoha, while a reluctant Neji trails behind.

And beside Sakura is Naruto, grinning that idiotic (brilliant) Naruto grin of his and saying, "You did good, Sakura-chan."

And here on her other side is Sasuke, smirking that annoying (heartthrob) Uchiha smirk.

(And they are Team Seven again).

Sakura closes her eyes.

And smiles.

-

_There is plenty of room in her heart for the past because soon, very soon, it will be time for her to join them_.

-end-

_Why I wrote this oneshot_: Because Sasuke is a moron for betraying the village Itachi gave his life to protect. Because Naruto is idiotic for still believing in Sasuke but Sasuke is even more idiotic for joining Akatsuki and betraying them all. Because Sasuke is an emo, gay boy whose vocabulary consists of the words 'power' and 'revenge'. Because the latest Naruto chapters are frustrating to the extreme and – shockingly enough – Sakura is the least idiotic of them all.

Please review.


End file.
